1998 Yearly Report

The annual Centurions Club 24 Hour
walking event was held this year
in conjunction with the Victorian Walkers Club in Melbourne. As always,
the
aim is to walk 100 miles within the 24 hour limit and hence gain
admittance to the exclusive Centurions Club.

This year's race saw a record field of
20 entrants with 19 actually fronting the starting line. The race start
time of 2PM turned out
well as this gave competitors a chance to get the tough night time
hours
over while still relatively fresh. The Collingwood Harriers track was
used
once again but this may be the last time due to the deteriorating track
surface. The weather was kind to us. While it was windy and showery
early, it never got really cold and a sunny Sunday gave competitors
ideal conditions to help them through the tiring final stages.

The race saw a lot of firsts for us

A large international flavour with 2 English and 4 New Zealand
walkers competing.

The presence of 6 Centurions in the field guaranteeing a class
event.

An entry during the last week by ultra-distance runner Peter
Gray. Peter was the youngest runner to complete the gruelling Sydney to
Melbourne classic and has run many multi-day runs during a long career.

An entry on the day from the great Yiannis Kouros who holds so
many of the ultra-distance running records and is the only runner to
have completed more than 300 km in a 24 hour period.

There were many talking points but
perhaps the main one was whether Yiannis Kouros could convert from
running to walking. With no real preparation, Yiannis simply turned up
on the day and started walking…and kept on walking. Rumour has it that
he did 10 laps walking the day before to prepare for
it.

The race started with Gerald Manderson
of New Zealand and Frank Overton of NSW setting a cracking pace. They
kept it up for the first 50 miles
with both passing that mark in just over 10 hours. At that stage,
Gerald was some 2 laps in front of Frank. However, Frank was feeling
the pace and within another 2 hours had been forced effectively out of
the race and off the track. That left Gerald on his own and he made the
most of it. With a very consistent and strong performance, he walked
right thru to the 100 mile mark with only a couple of breaks of a few
minutes duration. He powered through the 100 mile mark in a personal
best of 21:37:31 and kept on to the 24 hour with another personal best
of 177.665 km. Now lots of runners would like a
24 hour time like that!

Fellow Kiwi Norm Morris was always only
a short distance behind Gerald and walking consistently. Like Gerald,
he had few breaks and just kept
putting the laps in. The contrast between the 2 was stark. Gerald is
short
in stature, stocky with a quick business like gait. Gerald is tall and
lean
with a long raking gait. It just goes to show that fitness,
rather
than build, is the main criteria to a good 100 mile walk. Gerald
finished a clear second in the fine 100 mile time of 22:32:47 and then
stopped. He had achieved his goal of Centurion membership.

Behind Gerald and Norm, an interesting
battle was developing. As others fell by the wayside, Centurion John
Harris of Queensland and Victorian Yiannos Kouros were slowly
making their way though the field while British Centurion Roger LeMoine
was trying to hold them off and take the third
placing. They finished with only 4 laps separating the 3 walkers.
Yiannis was the first of the 3 to reach the 100 mile mark in the fine
time of 22:55:23 and he then continued on to the 24 hour gun,
completing 168.406 km. Roger was on his heels and completed his 6th 100
miler in 23:04:51. For Roger,
it was especially pleasing given his limited training over recent
years.
John Harris had been about 30 minutes behind them at the 50 mile mark
but
walked a great second half to eat up the field. His 50 mile splits were
11:28
and 11:42. He walked 23:18 in 1973 and improved that to 23:10
some
25 years later. John had been some 13 years out of the sport and was
only
intending to walk 100 km but felt so good that he continued on.

While all this was happening, Sue
Ramsey of England was staging her own personal struggle further back.
At one stage she looked destined to
just miss out on the magic 100 mile distance. She was slowing and
projections indicated that she would fall a lap or so short. But she
rallied in the
final 2 hours and dug deep to finish in 23:58:40. We think this might
be
the closest anyone has come to the 24 hour limit - about half a lap to
spare.
It was certainly an exciting finish and Sue was obviously rapt with the
result.

Behind Sue was a whole bevy of walkers
with 9 others walking at least 100 km. This indicates the depth
of the event and augurs well for next year's event. We can expect to
see lots of them back to try their hand again and try for that elusive
Centurion membership.

Here are profiles of some of the competitors:

Gerald
Manderson
(age 54) from New Zealand was definitely the gun in
the field. He only took up the sport in 1995 and has been advised by
Dudley Harris. His performances prior to this race were as follows

He certainly built on this with another fine performance, his first
ultra outside New Zealand.

Yiannis
Kouros
(age 42) is well known to all sports followers as possibly the
best ultra-distance runner in the world. He holds many world records
including an amazing 300+ km in 24 hours. Lack of any walking
preparation proved no barrier
to a fine performance. He looked always in control and was never in
doubt.
A fine first up Centurion walk that Yiannis can improve on if he so
desires.

Norm
Morriss (age 57) of New Zealand completed 100 miles in NZ in
1996 in 23:18 so is
an experienced ultra-distance walker, having also completed the
gruelling
Colac 6 day event. However, he had a quadruple heart bypass
earlier
this year and had had a quiet year since then, only gradually getting
back
into walking. For Norm, this was an experiment to see how he had
recovered.
Obviously very well judging from his performance.

Roger
Le Moine (age 57) of England is a British Centurion,
having first completed the 100 miles in 22:04 in 1993 (C 802). Roger is
a member of the famous Surrey Walking Club and is an experienced ultra
walker with some 5 100 mile performances under his belt before
this weekend's race. This experience showed as he made the most
of the occasion and completed yet another Centurion performance with
only limited preparation.

John
Harris
(AC12 - 1975) came to our Centurions race in Queensland
last year
after being many years away from the sport. This rekindled his
enthusiasm
and he completed a quick but intensive distance preparation. This
proved
to be sufficient to guide John to a second sub 24 hour 100 mile
performance
on the same track and in nearly the same time as he did 25 years ago.

Sue
Clements (age 44) from England was keen to come out for our
event last year but just could not fit it into her calendar. She is
already a British Centurion (C950, 1996, 23:42:37) and recently
completed the full 85 miles of the tough Isle of Man Parish Walk in
20:48:30 for a fine 23rd place. Her trip proved successful but by the
barest of margins.

Frank Overton (age 50) of NSW competed
in our 1997 event but the weather beat him and
he retired. He recently completed 89 km in the Gosford 12 hour
and
started confidently in this race. He was flying at the 50 mile mark but
was
forced to slow his pace soon after as exhaustion set in. Frank will be
disappointed with his distance of 134 km but should be back to try
again.

Robert
Radley (age 41) of New Zealand recently completed 141.76 km in
the New Zealand
Sri Chimnoy 24 hour event so was a serious entrant. Once again, he
walked
consistently, walking 133 km during the 24 hours. He showed he has the
mental
attitude to soon achieve the 100 mile distance and we expect to see
that
soon.

Steel
Beveridge (age 47) of NSW was going to walk in our event last
year but the flu prevented him. This year, he was keen to make amends
and walked well. However, his
pace was never quite there and he just ran out of time, completing 132
km.
But he showed fine mental toughness and he should achieve his goal
soon.

Peter
Waddell (age 67) completed 130 km in the 1996 event and was back
once again to have another go. His
last major venture was the 6 Day Colac Ultramarathon where he came 9th
and
walked 540 km, a record for a walker in that event. So his toughness
and
endurance are never in question. However, this was not
Peter's
weekend as he gradually slowed and fell short of the required pace. His
final
distance of 120 km was still meritorious but probably disappointing to
him.

Fred
Baker (age 66) is a former Secretary of the British Centurions
and has 20 100
mile performances to his name, the first one being at age 23 and the
last
one at age 60. He migrated to Australia a couple of years ago and came
out
of retirement to complete 124 km in our 1997 event on no training. With
a
bit of extra work in the last 12 months, he was keen to gain another
Centurion badge and was well on target at the 50 mile mark. However,
his body had other ideas and he was forced off the track after about 14
hours.

This is for the most meritorious performance. Norm Morriss walked a
fantastic 100 miler only 5 months after a quadruple heart bypass
operation. You can't go past that - it is the stuff of legend. Well
done Norm
on a great job.

50 Mile Splits

The following table shows the 50 mile split for each competitor.
Note that to complete the 100 mile walk distance within 24 hours, it is
recommended that you try to reach the 50 mile mark in under 11 hours.
Note that neither Yiannis Kouros nor Sue Clements nor John Harris did
this but still got there. That illustrates how evenly they walked.